Cyrus Farivar

Wired News: by Cyrus Farivar June 01, 2007 | 6:36:35 PM Apple has declined to explain why its new DRM-free music files are watermarked with users’ names and e-mail addresses. Earlier this week, Apple iTunes 7.2 brought the new ability to download tracks from EMI Records without copy protection. But the unprotected files are labeled with the buyer’s details, leading some to wonder if Apple is appending the information as an anti-piracy measure. But Apple is remaining mum about its…

Reuters: BERLIN (Reuters) – Knut, Berlin Zoo’s celebrity polar bear cub, is growing from a cuddly ball of fur into a shaggy, powerful predator who could soon pose a serious threat to his devoted human keeper who has nursed him from birth. The cub, which still draws some 5,000 fans every day, turns six months on Tuesday and his 28 kg (62 pounds) are starting to show. His snout is longer, his torso chunkier and teeth sharper. Here’s a video…

My favorite hip-hop duo from Seattle will be rockin’ the mic this Thursday at Pier 23 in a FREE show that starts at 9 pm! I will *so* be there. Come meet me! (Did I mention that it’s free?)

Earlier today I wrote about how Google had added Street View, a really awesome new feature that allows for street-level photos in major metro areas, including the Bay Area. I was able to check out my own house here in Oakland, and saw my Toyota Corolla parked smartly in front. Man, this is so freakin’ sweet.

Man, these stories just keep getting better: The Stanford Daily: Kim — the 18-year-old from Fullerton, Calif. who was revealed by The Daily last Thursday to have been squatting in Stanford dorms since September despite not being affiliated with the University — duped ROTC officials into thinking she was an honor-roll Stanford student for eight months. She took classes on Army tactics and history, received military equipment worth more than $1,000 and even earned official military awards for her top…

I just found out that MC Solaar’s seventh album will be coming out next month. Appropriately, as has been the case for the last few albums with their numerological titles, it’ll be called “Chapitre 7.” It’s been four years since the last one — I can’t wait. Pretty much all that’s known about the first single is that it’s called: “Da Vinci Claude,” after the “Da Vinci Code” and Solaar’s real name, Claude M’Barali.

For the record, I’ve left Engadget entirely, and have rejoined MacUser.

That friendly junior college down on the Peninsula has just caught a girl who was squatting in a dorm, faking the fact that she was a student for the better part of an entire school year. But better than that, points out SFist, is that there’s another fake student afoot: And this is the best part of the whole story! There’s another fake student at Stanford! Apparently a woman’s been squatting in one of the theoretical physics labs. For four…

My current Craigslist listings: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/hsh/338239882.html http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/wet/338252040.html

So while driving home from last night’s Nous Non Plus show at Café du Nord at around 12:30 am last night, I was pleased to see that the I-580 connector was reopened — I drove across it en route home. C.C. Myers sounds like a helluva guy, as in this previous anecdote about his getting part of I-10 in LA done on time in 1994. He rode his crews hard, praising, goading and yelling in equal measure. When he had…